Have you ever felt a tug-of-war between your masculine and feminine sides? The truth is, we all possess both energies within us, and learning to embrace and balance them can lead to profound self-discovery and growth. Annie talks with Jen Briggs, host of The Whole Shebang, about why balancing energies is key to showing up as our best selves. Jen dives into why she welcomes the current societal shift towards embracing feminine energies, emphasizing the transformative power of emotions, intuition, and flow in achieving inner fulfillment and authenticity.
Harnessing Inner Balance
[00:28:07] “That's a big part of this process…to have courage to undo old beliefs or realize where you've abandoned yourself also requires building a new relationship with yourself where you can trust yourself to step into what is more true, what is more you and you.”
[00:36:59] “The feminine's biggest wound is that she'll be too much, too emotional, too sensitive, too soft. The masculine's biggest wound is that they won't be enough. I won't have enough to succeed. I won't have enough power, enough of this. And so the healthy version of that is really bringing union to the inner masculine, inner feminine, so that we can show up more whole.”
[01:10:30] “Because we're designed to live life in a way that is both challenging and causes us to evolve and grow, and also brings a lot of joy. And when we snap into alignment, we positively impact the whole ecosystem.”
Connect with Jen Briggs
Website - https://www.thejenniferbriggs.com/
Instagram - @jennifer.e.briggs
Facebook - The Whole Shebang
YouTube - @TheWholeShebangPodcast
Podcast - The Whole Shebang
Audio/video editing and show notes by Podcast Abundance. Find out how they can help you too by visiting www.podcastabundance.com/services
00:00:04 - Annie Dickerson
Hey, there. I'm Annie Dickerson, and on behalf of the whole Goodegg Investments team, I wanted to welcome you to another episode of the Life and Money show. And, boy, do we have a really special conversation for you today. On today's show, I'm talking with Jen Briggs. She's the host of the podcast the Whole Shebang. And in this conversation, we talk about so much. The journey of unfolding, how to integrate masculine and feminine energies, corporate burnout, authenticity, vulnerability, awakening, going within to find your true self, and so much more. It is all of the stuff that I love to geek out about these days. Back when we first started Good Egg Investments, I was always geeking out about real estate.
00:00:55 - Annie Dickerson
And while I still love real estate and I'm super passionate about helping people build their wealth and reach financial independence and do the things that they love, I'm realizing, as Jen talks about on this show, is there's a difference between the way that we've been taught to reach our goals, which is set a goal. Let's say it's financial. I want to reach this amount of total wealth or net worth, or I want to reach this amount of passive income so that I can quit my job and do whatever it is that I want to do. And then you work backwards from there, and you say, okay, well, that means I need a job that makes X amount, and I need to save this amount every month, and then I need to invest this amount from that. Then we wait, let's say five years, 10 years, 20 years, we keep snowballing that wealth, then we get to that point, check off that box, and then we move on to the next thing.
00:01:49 - Annie Dickerson
That's traditionally how goals work. You set a goal, then you work backwards from there. You reach the goal, and you're like, yay, celebration. Onto the next thing. But what I've realized through my journey of discovery, especially over the last year, two years, it's been probably four years now that I've been on this path, is I've realized there's so much more to that.
00:02:13 - Annie Dickerson
It's not just about what's on paper. It's not just about reaching the goal, the outward, external goal, but it's about so much more than that. It's about what goes on in the inside, about how you're feeling along the way and about the fulfillment that you're actually going for. And that goal might represent the fulfillment or that feeling that you're trying to get to some aspect of that. And sometimes the goal and that feeling are in alignment, and that's amazing. Those are the best moments.
00:02:48 - Annie Dickerson
But often we get to that goal. We do all this work to get to that goal, and then we realize, wait a second, this doesn't give me that feeling that I actually wanted. And if this has happened for you, if you're nodding your head as you are listening to me talking about this, you're not alone, because this has happened to me as well. This is why I'm so passionate about bringing this aspect of the journey to our conversations. About financial independence, about wealth, about investing, about your finances, about living a life by design.
00:03:24 - Annie Dickerson
Because it's not just about the financial piece. It's about so much more than that. And I think so many of us get caught in that cycle of what is in my bank account, what does my net worth look like? And we abandon so many other parts of ourselves that aren't outwardly or immediately or extrinsically rewarded. So this conversation is about so much of that. And this is so fitting, because as I'm recording this, I'm coming off of a weekend with five of my best friends from the college days. Back when I was at Penn, we went to Miraval in Tucson. It's a wellbeing resort, let's call it. We spent the last four days there.
00:04:10 - Annie Dickerson
These are friends that I've known since college, and I just turned 40. We were celebrating my 40th birthday. And so we've known each other for over 20 years. And yet there are parts of myself that I haven't shown them and parts of themselves that I discovered for the first time. That's this part of this journey of authenticity, of self discovery, of feeling into what you're trying to create, not just going for that external goal.
00:04:40 - Annie Dickerson
I could probably spend an entire episode just talking about this experience that we had. But I'll give you just this little snippet, which is that we started off the weekend with. You know, Miraval is one of those resorts that has all this programming. They have all these different offerings each day. A lot of them are spiritual related, transformation related, kind of giving you the time and space while you're there in this luxurious environment to go deeper, to put your phone aside, to put your work aside, to really do that inner work. And they have a lot of different classes and workshops and different offerings to support you in that. One of the things that I was most looking forward to was this equine experience, essentially this horse therapy and I had seen in various social media or in movies.
00:05:29 - Annie Dickerson
There was a movie I watched, I think, as a teenager. It's called 28 Days with Sandra Bullock. And in it, as she's going through recovery from addiction, there's this one exercise with a horse. They're supposed to try to lift one of the horse's hooves to clean the bottom of the hoof. And it's not just about that act of doing that.
00:05:52 - Annie Dickerson
It's about so much more than that, because a horse is a very intuitive creature, so they know if you are fully there with them or if you trust yourself or not. And I was really curious to try this for myself and see if I could do that thing, if I could get the horse to trust me and lift its hoof for me. So I was really curious about that. But I stepped into the ring, and I gotta tell you, it wasn't about the horse. It was about so much more. Because through just being in that ring, it brought up these nerves in me. And our guide kind of started to dig in a little bit. How are you feeling in this moment? And I said, well, I'm kind of nervous.
00:06:34 - Annie Dickerson
I don't. I don't know what to expect. And we had a conversation about where was I feeling it in my body? And then really giving this space for me to honor my feelings in that moment, which I think in daily life, we stuff so much of that down because there's just not enough time, and we got things to do, places to be. So I really was able to connect with myself in that moment. And then here's the thing. I went to go lift the horse's hoof, and guess what? I followed all of the steps that he said, Bent at the waist, I went down.
00:07:05 - Annie Dickerson
I squeezed firmly. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing happened. I retraced the steps in my head. Nothing happened. The horse stood there resolute, on all fours. There was no chance he was going to pick up his hoof for me. So then I asked for help, and I said, well, what do you recommend? What do you suggest? What can I do differently? And he said again. He went back to, well, how are you feeling? There was so much in that moment. You know, I was on display in front of my closest friends, and I had this fear of, oh, my gosh, what are they going to think of me? I should have been able to pick up this hoof. They're watching me. They're seeing me fail. And I said, well, I'm feeling disappointed. It took me actually a long time to even get to the feelings because I kept saying things.
00:07:54 - Annie Dickerson
He was like, nope, that's a thought. That's a thought. But finally, I Got to this feeling of sadness, of grief, of disappointment that I wasn't a natural. Can you believe that? How silly is that? I'm not a horse person. I thought I would walk up to a horse and I would be so naturally good at this thing. I've never done that I was disappointed when it didn't work for me. How silly, right? When we think about that, how often in life are we doing those things where we're, like, oh, so scared to look bad at this thing that I've never done before, of course. And then it makes us play smaller and be less of ourselves. And so ultimately, what happened was Tyler suggested, why don't you try it again? But rather than trying to be a natural, just have fun with it, be playful with it. So I said, playful? We could do that. In fact, that's one of the parts of myself that I love the most.
00:08:46 - Annie Dickerson
So I went back up to the horse. His name was Tater Tot. I took our guide, Tyler's advice and went up to the horse. I was like, come on, it's you and me. I just need you to lift this one hoof. And I went up to him, and I squeezed. And guess what? He picked up his hoof just a tiny bit, like it was off the ground. Like he was standing on tiptoes on that one hoof, but it was still on the ground. And the goal was to get him to pick it up all the way so that the full calf area of that one leg was in my hand. So basically, he would be depending on me for balance because he would be standing on three legs and I would be holding that one leg. And so we weren't there yet. You only picked it up a little bit. And I said, okay, I see some movement. That's better. And instead of going back to my serious self and saying, well, let me repeat the steps, this time, I took a different approach. And I said, okay, come on. I went back up to Tater Tot's head, and I was talking to him, and I said, come on, it's you and me. We got this. This is simple. You do this all the time. I'm here trying to experience this for the first time.
00:09:55 - Annie Dickerson
And, you know, we got this. And I went back down. And that third time, guess what? He lifted his leg. Super simple. All I had to be was my full self. I had to bring those parts of me that I was afraid of to that situation. And that's ultimately what we're talking about here today, is so many of us have done very small things along the way, to turn away from ourselves, to stamp out parts of ourselves, to stuff it down, because it didn't fit into this neat little box of whom we wanted to be and whom we thought others wanted us to be.
00:10:34 - Annie Dickerson
So in this conversation, we're going to dig into all of that, because with some simple tweaks, some simple things that you can start to think about and integrate into your daily life, you can start to come back home to yourself, your full self, your true self. And just like Tater Tot knew that I wasn't being my full self, if there are parts of yourself that you're hiding, that you are stuffing down that you're not in touch with, that means you're not playing full out and you're not being that full, authentic version of yourself.
00:11:04 - Annie Dickerson
You're playing small, so it might hold you back from things in your life, like picking up a horse's hoof. So that's what we're gonna cover in this conversation. Thank you for allowing me to share that little tidbit from my weekend, which is amazing.
00:11:22 - Annie Dickerson
One last thing is when you're going on this journey of self discovery, whether you're just at the beginning or you are well into it and you're loving finding different modalities, or you're really scared, you've done maybe a little bit of work, but you're scared to go deeper. One of the things that I find most helpful is having a community of people around me to support me who care about some of the same things, but more than that, they care about me and who I am and supporting me wherever life takes me.
00:11:51 - Annie Dickerson
I'm talking about the power of community and the power of finding your tribe. And here at Goodegg Investments, we are big into community. And so we've created what we call our Goodegg Investor Club. It's our community of people who are seeking something beyond themselves, whether financially or in their lives. And what we do is we invest together. We invest in apartment buildings, in hotels, so that you can start to grow your wealth and build a better financial future for yourself and your family. So if that resonates with you, we invite you to join us. You can go to goodeg investments.com invest to learn more about the Goodegg Investor Club and see if it's right for you.
00:12:43 - Annie Dickerson
With that, let's dive into my conversation with Jen Briggs. Jen, welcome to the show.
00:12:52 - Jen Briggs
How are you? I'm fantastic. Thank you, Annie, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.
00:12:59 - Annie Dickerson
I couldn't be more thrilled about the conversation we're about to have. You and I met on a magical retreat to Scotland not that long ago. I've talked about that a little bit on this show, but we got to know each other a little bit during that trip. But in the days and weeks after, as I've started following you and learning more about you, I've realized we're so much more aligned and deeply connected than I thought. I went to your website, and it may have been your previous website, but I went and I read this quote that really resonated with me for a long time. I had this quote up in my sort of my makeup corner and read it every day as I was getting ready. It was an Anais Nin quote. In it, she says, your life shrinks or expands in proportion to your courage. For the last many years, as we've built this business and really tried to expand our impact, it was really resonating with me that if I could step up and I could do this thing that I'm scared of, then we can expand the business and we can ripple out our impact. But over the last year, especially as I've been doing more of this deep inner work, I've noticed in the mornings when I was getting ready, I was like, that doesn't resonate as much as it used to. And when I came across this quote on your website, which I've read before, but for whatever reason this time, oh, it rang deep in my soul. And I. In fact, right after that, I printed it out and I've now changed that quote. So now it says, and the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. And I know this is a very meaningful quote to you. So let's start there because I know you've been on this huge and deep journey of self discovery and transformation. I want you to take us back to the moment that started you on this trajectory. Because I know like many of our listeners, our audience, you probably started off on a path that was very, quote, normal. You probably did all the things you were supposed to do, but something happened that changed your trajectory. So take us to that moment.
00:15:24 - Jen Briggs
Yeah. Thank you for that foundation here. Yeah. It was May of 2017, so four, seven years ago that my father passed away. I remember being younger and thinking about what it would be like when I lost someone close to me. I sort of had that fear of, like, losing the people I loved. Coincidentally or not, I had lost my brother 2 years prior to my dad passing and my brother Had a life of angst. I would say he struggled with mental health and drug abuse issues. And the grieving of my brother essentially was throughout his life, throughout my life. And so when he passed, it was like we all knew it was coming, but we didn't know when or how, and that there wasn't shock there. When my father passed away two years after that, there was a kind of jolt in that. I don't know if I would describe it as an awakening at the time, and maybe it was the two of those things combined, but it really caused me to pause my life, pause how I was reflecting, how I was moving. Like you said, I had moved through life and did all of the things right. I went to college, went to graduate school, I got married, I had three kids, I bought the house, I had the career, did all of the things I had, the success I had, the money, sort of at that point, although we went through some other challenges. But when my father passed away, it was almost as if something in me mutated. I had this moment of, it's so cliche, but, wow, life is short. And if I get the blessing of having a long life, how do I really want to live it? And that first question began to transmute into a domino, a cascading effect of questions. Well, if I don't want to live my life this way, how do I want to live it? And why don't I want to live my life this way? Well, really, at the core, when I peeled all of that away, it was, who am I? And I remember calling my mom. As I was kind of working through this process and being like, mom, I've lost myself along the way. I abandoned myself in lots of little ways to comply with a religious structure, to comply with a societal structure, to fit into a marriage that was good, but wasn't really in alignment with the core of who I was. So I called my mom, just kind of like, I'm searching, like, who am I really? Who am I at the core? And my mom just responded with, you are who you've always been. And there was something about the way she said that that was like, all right, who have I always been? Who is really at the core of that? So that led me on a journey of connecting, coming back home, really connecting with self. And as I began to get more and more connected with the truth of who I was, that's when it took the courage, because it was like the risk to remain tight in that bud, the bud that I had lived in my whole entire life, was more painful and More great than the courage that it took to start shedding and letting go. But that was scary. It was scary to start letting go.
00:18:37 - Annie Dickerson
Yeah. You mentioned that you had abandoned yourself in many little ways. The reason that that resonates with me is because I think so many of us don't realize that we're doing that. We put blinders on. I did this. And for many years, I wouldn't have said I abandoned myself. I would have said, I'm doing what I want to do. I'm building this thing, or I'm having kids, I'm pouring into them. So tell us about that. What do you mean by you abandoned yourself in all these little ways? How did you know that?
00:19:15 - Jen Briggs
They say hindsight's 2020 for a reason. Like you said, I couldn't really see it in the moment. But as I started to gain clarity, as I started to really align with more of who I was, looking back, I'll just give some little examples. I'm like, I'm going to age myself here, but. But I felt like, oh, my God.
00:19:35 - Annie Dickerson
Right there with you.
00:19:36 - Jen Briggs
Yeah. I was like, I'm the runaway bride. But it wasn't about the bride. Was like, I'm the one sitting here going, how do I like my eggs? What music do I like?
00:19:48 - Annie Dickerson
I gotta stop you there because I haven't thought about that movie in I don't know how long. I literally was talking about that exactly scene just like two days ago with Marianne, who was also on the retreat in Scotland with us because we were talking about the same thing. And how in the movie she didn't know how she liked her eggs. She liked it. However, the man she was with liked their eggs.
00:20:13 - Jen Briggs
It's such a simple thing, but I remember it was actually, I went on this, my first solo vacation ever to Colorado after a lot of change had happened. At this point, I moved through a divorce. I changed my career. Like, I really transformed almost every facet of my life. And I was working on vision, you know, what now? What is my vision? What is my next chapter? And I took a four day trip to Colorado. It was the first time I've gotten away by myself. And it was a really poignant moment. I'd rented a car, I needed to get gas. It was actually my assistant at the time, she said, enjoy the snacks on your road trip. And I pulled into the gas station. I was like, I get to get snacks. What snacks do I even want? Because I'm like getting my kids snacks. And I'm.
00:20:56 - Annie Dickerson
Yep.
00:20:57 - Jen Briggs
And then I get back in the Car. And I'm like, I get to listen to whatever music I want. What music do I want? And my former husband, I'll just say, he's a great man. We get along well. We. I have nothing negative to say about him. He was a jazz musician. And I used to work in a church as a church musician. And so it was either jazz music or church music. And I was like, it's neither of those things anymore, so, like, what do I want to listen to? And it was in those little ways that I started to learn to actually ask myself, what do I want to eat right now? What does my body want to eat right now? And what do I really believe about my faith? It was the little things that became a gateway to the bigger questions as I sort of titrated to this, like, new normal of feeling safe within myself and trusting myself. That's a big part of this process. To have courage to undo old beliefs or realize where you've abandoned yourself also requires building a new relationship with yourself, where you can trust yourself to step into what is more true, what is more you. And I'm continuing to uncover ways that I've abandoned myself. And that does feel maybe like a heavy way to put it, but maybe like a light version of that is making compromise or living in ways that are just subtly mediocre to what I really am. So I'm dating somebody new, and we're talking a lot about what I believe about sexuality. Where is my liberation there? Where is my freedom there? What did I used to believe and why? And where is the sacred? Is the sacred in everything? So I'm continuing, as I'm evolving, to find ways that I complied with things, to fit in a group, a structure, you name it. We all have ways that we, in my working world, and sometimes we need to do that, right? Like, I was a pretty visible leader in the position that I was in, and so I needed to fit in order to represent that company. And in so doing, maybe in that way, I wouldn't say I necessarily abandoned myself, but I wasn't fully steeped in, like, the fullness of who I am. And now I feel like I have more freedom to do more of that.
00:23:16 - Annie Dickerson
I'm so glad you brought that in because I can relate so deeply with what you're saying, because it's been so much of my journey, too, because starting this real estate investing business. I'm a very serious person, Jen. I can't be talking about all of these things. I can't be going on spiritual retreats. Oh, I Gotta keep that closeted. The first time I went on this erotic feminine retreat, I was like, oh, no. I mean, it was powerful. But I got to segment that out from what I do in daily life. What if my investors found out? What would they think of me? Would they still put their money with me? It's so silly now that I think about it, because obviously they want to see me as a whole person and so do all the people around me. And even before we started recording, we were talking about this past weekend I had spent at miraval with my five closest friends from college, celebrating my 40th birthday. Mind you, these are women who have known me since we were 18 years old, okay? So over 20 years of our lives, we've been friends. We've seen each other through marriages, through kids, through jobs, through self discovery. And still I discovered that I was scared to share so many parts of my life with them, the closest friends of mine. And on the first day we were there, they said, well, Annie, it's your birthday. What do you want to do? And I had planned an itinerary, but in that moment when we didn't have something to do, I was like, what do I want to do right now? We're staying at this beautiful place. And it was such a simple thing. I was like, do I want to go in the pool right now? Do I want to sit inside and talk? Do I want to have a snack? And it was such a simple thing, but my default would have been, oh, I'm easy. I can do whatever do you guys want to do? And even that is a way of abandoning ourselves. It takes courage to step into that moment and to say, wait a second, I want to do this. And, you know, it doesn't matter to me if other people may not want to do that right now. That's okay. But I want to be true to myself. And I'm going to hop in the pool right now. And that is what I did, by the way. Ultimately, I was like, it was 9:00 at night, the stars were out. And I said, I'm gonna get in the pool. And everybody got in the pool with me and we had the best time.
00:25:46 - Jen Briggs
I love that. I think along those lines that sort of, as you were sharing about that, that there is also this place of, like, owning our desire. And to your point, about the feminine, it's a lot of the work that I've been doing, all of this is closely related. But that's like knowing what my desire is and where it comes from. The first step is not abandoning self. And then it's going, oh, this is my desire. And finding this sort of delicious space of holding that desire and owning that. And then receiving, which is I found in my work and working with others, one of the biggest challenges, it tends to be, okay, now I know maybe what I want, but do I think I'm worthy of receiving it? Am I comfortable enough? Can my nervous system handle receiving what my friends have for me, what the universe has for me, what life has gifted me? It's a piece of that courage of the unfolding. But then the reception is an additional piece of that.
00:26:43 - Annie Dickerson
Yes. Tell me about the feminine and the masculine, because I know this is a big part of your work, and this is a part that I am starting to discover. I think for gosh, so many years, I was out of touch with the feminine, and I actively stuffed it down. I didn't have a single pink thing in my closet because I thought, that's too weak. That represents the feminine in me, and I don't want any part of that. I am all about achieving. Growing up, I would much rather have been a tomboy than a girly girl. And I worked so hard at that perception and that identity. But now I've started to embrace that, both sides in me, the masculine and the feminine. Tell me about that in your work, because I know that's such a huge part of what you do and how you help people to create this transformation and to find their true authenticity.
00:27:36 - Jen Briggs
Yeah, thank you for asking. It's become, I originally said, like, a fascination. And then I was like, oh, my God, this is an obsession. And now it's a passion. It's so many things to me, and I think a big part of my dharma. And there are lots of different words that we can use for it. And very transparently, I've sort of struggled around what language to use because I don't want to exclude people from the conversation or isolate them.
00:28:00 - Jen Briggs
And so I'll just start by saying when I refer to masculine and feminine, it is not a gendered. It's not male and female. It's qualities, like you said, that we all have within us. And for people that are new to that conversation, maybe an easy way to think about it is right brain, left brain. So left is logical and linear and achievement oriented and goal oriented. And right brain is sort of the creative, connective, vulnerable, sensual side of things. And I think it's very, very common because of the way our society is set up, that we've been rewarded to function in our left brain.
00:28:37 - Jen Briggs
And or in our logical masculine energy. We've been rewarded financially, we've been rewarded in promotions. And I think that this is a part of our society's evolution, that a lot of the structures have been typically created, male lead, masculine. And now I am kind of equating it to gender, but historically speaking, that's what it was. And then women were entering that world that was masculine forward. And in order for us to succeed in that world, we needed to fit and self abandon. And honestly, the more that I'm diving into this work, I feel like a lot of men have done the same thing. They have an inner feminine that they've felt that they've needed to abandon to succeed in that structure, in that world, which is don't be too emotional. The feminine's biggest wound is that she'll be too much too emotional, too sensitive, too soft. The masculine's biggest wound is that it won't be enough. I won't have enough to succeed. I won't have enough power, enough of this. So the healthy version of that is really bringing union to the inner masculine, inner feminine, so that we can show up more whole. You said that earlier. And what I think we're at right now is sort of a precipice. And whether people are into astrology or not, we are entering a new era, the Aquarian age, which is more feminine dominant, which is more focused on connection and collaboration and synarchy instead of hierarchy.
00:30:08 - Jen Briggs
And so how do we succeed as a team? How do we collaborate instead of compete? And that is, I'm talking to people who are literally waking up one day and going, wow, there's something in me that just can't do it this way anymore. I just can't do it the old way anymore. Which isn't to say that we throw out all of the old systems and structures. To me, I'm using the word reintegrate or remember or uncover the feminine so that we're bringing that back in to a union that'll happen within. And that goes back to. If I start with me, where have I, like you said, shoved the feminine down so my emotions are too much.
00:30:50 - Jen Briggs
So instead of feeling my emotions, I'm going to shut them off, compartmentalize them, numb them. But in doing that, I'm also then quieting my intuition. And intuition is a huge part of the feminine. And intuitive power to me is otherworldly. It's connected to a intelligence that we can't logic our way to. But if we could be like animals, because we are animals, and connect to that Intuition in our business decisions, in our relationship patterns in our.
00:31:23 - Jen Briggs
What snacks do I want? How do I want my eggs? What food does my body want? That's a real one. What intuitively, what nutrition does my body need right now? And then also bring in structure and systems to it. It's a pretty freaking beautiful marriage.
00:31:39 - Annie Dickerson
I couldn't agree more. It's those little things. And I'm curious to hear more about your work with your clients and your audience and how you're seeing this. But I remember just a few months ago, I kept having these conversations with mentors and coaches, and they kept telling me, you need to let your kids see you cry. And I had never. You know, my kids are now 12 and 8. They've never seen me cry. Not that I was trying to hide it from them, but I don't cry often because I wasn't in touch with that part of myself. So when I did cry, I'd kind of go in a corner, get it over with, get it out. Then I'd go back to normal life. So I held this loose intention that, okay, I'm not scared of, that I can let my kids see me cry. And I joked with them, and I said, someday I'm gonna watch a really sad movie, and I'm just gonna cry, and you guys are gonna be there, and we're gonna check this thing off my list. And, oh, boy, did the universe have different plans for me. I had this very, very intense week. Actually, it was after not the Scotland retreat, but a previous retreat with Karen. And I thought, I don't need this retreat. I've already gone through a lot of this. The topic of the retreat was upgrading your emotional algorithm. And I thought, this is beyond me. I've already done this work. And the universe decided to use that to hand me my hat. So in the week after, so many things, not just in business, but in life, melted down all at once. And it culminated in this moment, which I've talked about in the podcast. And for anybody who wants to see a picture of this, it's also on our Instagram. I took my kids to get checked for lice while we were traveling in Portland. Not only did they have lice, I had lice. So we did the whole treatment. I had my whole head oiled up and in the plastic shower cap. Meanwhile, I was trying to make two big wires, and the bank was not cooperating with me. They had just gone through this acquisition, and they couldn't find my wires. I was sitting in the seat, getting all this oil in my Hair. It was a whole day of that kind of stress that you have a lot on your to do list. No problem. You sit down and you knock it out one by one. That's a different kind of stress. This kind of stress was totally outside of my control. Calling the bank and getting transferred from one person to another, knowing that if I didn't get the wire out before the wire cut off time, that our partners would lose millions of dollars in this real estate deal. Our investors would lose out on this opportunity. It was a lot riding on this. And it took that to get me to this state of this ugly cry that I was finally like, wow, it took me this far to be able to get to and access this level of emotion. It was also not only the first time that my kids saw me cry. It was the first time I let my husband hold while I was crying. And so many dams broke that day.
00:34:56 - Jen Briggs
It's beautiful.
00:34:57 - Annie Dickerson
I think when we abandon these parts of ourselves, it's not so much in the moment because like you said, it's a tiny. You just turn away a little bit. But over time, that path gets deeper and deeper, and you walk so far away from who you truly are that it's so much harder. It takes something like lice. I had to go down to the. In the lice cap and chase down 5 million doll liar.
00:35:23 - Jen Briggs
That's an amazing story. Yeah.
00:35:25 - Annie Dickerson
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's beautiful.
00:35:27 - Jen Briggs
Well, and I imagine for you, as you're sharing about that, I get the question, like, well, why would I want to feel those emotions? Because it's easier to control. Right. That's the masculine in us. It's actually a wounded masculinist that wants to control that and is afraid of what happens if we loose that. And to me, there is a lot of power in not just emotion, but in our intuition and in our ability to flow. I think it was Deepak Chopra, he talks about this in relation to abundance. So you're probably familiar with it. And it also feels similar to me in our emotions that we're meant to circulate, that abundance is meant to circulate. And when we hold, hold, hold, we coagulate and we stop up. Like you said, it's a dam that holds us up. And I saw this in my own life when I was afraid to experience what I perceived as pain, whether it was sadness or grief or fear or anxiety. And I stopped that up. You become a less sensitive tuning fork. Right. Or you become a less sensitive creature. So when I stop that up, I stop up. Everything that is the reverse of that. So to what degree I'm able to experience that feeling is to the degree that I can experience joy, pleasure, gratitude, and freedom. And that feels really scary because it all feels out of control, honestly. And if we're used to controlling everything within us and without us, then particularly that moment with my dad. I mean, when I first stepped into grief, I didn't really have a choice. Everything else I could control but grief chased me down. And when I let the waves of that wash over and then the waves were beyond me, I was like, wow, okay. I lived. I didn't die. Because I literally had a moment of like, will I survive this? It feels so huge in the moment. And sometimes I feel that now with joy or with these, because I've worked so hard at freeing myself up. You. You and I would be an interesting pair, like, doing anything for a day, because I'll walk around the lake and see a kid laughing and I'll tear up, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, Jennifer. And I now am kind of in this next phase of my own personal growth of not bringing in the masculine to control that, but within myself, there still needs to be a framework to hold all that the feminine is, which is everything that moves, lives, breathes, and is wild and free and all of that. So good job for allowing that or being there for it when it overcame you.
00:38:12 - Annie Dickerson
It did. It was like the waves washed over me, and all I could do was surrender to the moment. I knew I had absolutely no control in that situation. All I could do was what I could do. I'm so grateful that it turned out well. And it was almost like a cosmic joke at the end, because, of course, right before the deadline and, oh, here it is. We've got the wire. You know, it's like everything was always going to be fine, but I had to go through that because this was my opportunity to get to that.
00:38:46 - Jen Briggs
That's so great.
00:38:47 - Annie Dickerson
You mentioned something else that our listener probably perked their ears up at, or maybe it ruffled some feathers within them. So I want to dig back to this. This concept of awakening. This is a word that has come up a lot, I think, at least in my spheres, and may have come up for the listener in their world. And I think people have different thoughts and different understanding about what awakening is and what it means. And some people may hear that word and be like, oh, that's not for me. That's too floofy. That's for the people in white who are all spiritual, wearing beads that's what they do. But tell me what awakening means for you. Maybe what you've seen in your life and maybe what you have seen with the people that you've worked with.
00:39:36 - Jen Briggs
This is so good. You know, awakening, the opposite of being awake is to slumber. And when I look back at my life pre that moment, again, in hindsight, I was walking through life in a bit of a slumber. I was living in a way that was meeting the standards that I grew up with, just like I had laid out earlier. I'm going to school, I'm having the kids, I'm getting married, I've got the house, I'm focusing on retirement. I'm doing the things. And to me it felt a little sleepy looking back. And at the time, it was all I knew. And I think oftentimes when I look at myself or other people who have this awakening that happens, I'm going to say often, I think it is sort of this midlife crisis slash chrysalis moment or a crisis in life that happens. You know, if you look at the cycle of transformation, we constantly are going through these cycles of transformation. You can see it in your business, you can see it in your personal life. So just on a non spiritual level, disruption is what causes transformation. So we're going through like a healthy, normal cycle and something comes in and the crap hits the fan, then we got to go, what is happening? And you could see that if your listeners are thinking of their business, when has that happened in their business? That usually causes an inward okay, so we've got to stop and investigate. Why did this happen? What's happening in the industry? What's happening in the marketplace? How can we shift? How can we transform? And then out of that inward journey, out of that inward chrysalis, something new is born. So what's new that is born? And in that process, we can call it illumination, we can call it an aha, we can call it innovation in business. So when I think about my inner life, my inner world, not just my outer world and business, the awakening to me is being illuminated to something that I couldn't see before, that enlivens. This is hard to put words to, you know, when you're not talking about it in concrete terms, but I would say for me has enlivened me and caused me to experience life in more visceral, sensorial ways. It's really ultimately about being more present too. So that instead of going through life on autopilot, I'm feeling the wind when I'm taking a Walk. I'm hearing actually the tonality in the wind. I'm really enjoying this first sip of my coffee instead of when I was at work 12 hours a day, like chugging coffee to get stemmed up, you know? And now it's like, let me be present in this moment and then awake to the reality of what that means. And also. And now this may be a little woo for some people, but I think awakening to, I'm just going to say a greater intelligence. Call it what you will. If it's God, if it's nature, if it's universe, if it's source, if it's higher self. But being more in tune, I like to use the analogy of nature because we are nature. Our bodies are a universe. Our bodies are this intricately designed ecosystem. When one thing is off, it impacts everything. When everything's running really high octane, it's really powerful. And we are a small part of this huge ecosystem that has this intricate design and ability to move, I believe. And there's a lot of things we talk about religiously, I don't intend to go there, but tuning into that higher intelligence to help us make the decisions and live the life by design that we want to live, because we are a part of this wildly intricate ecosystem. So awakening to what that means, awakening to the power of life. And that versus me just getting up, clocking in, clocking out, going to sleep, making money, getting up, you know, that's slumber to me.
00:43:33 - Annie Dickerson
I want to get on your perspective on this, because my husband and I were just talking about this this morning. This concept of you have to have that moment when the crap hits the fan and you're like, okay, I don't want this anymore. Or this has awoken something within me that I want to find another path or try a new thing. So as a mother, and I think about this with my kids, as a mother, especially these days, you want to protect them from everything. You want the best for them. And I'm thinking, I'm learning all these strategies. Let me teach them to them so that they will never have these wounds and these traumas. And of course, I know intellectually, no, they need to have that. So how old are kids?
00:44:19 - Jen Briggs
18, 16 and 13.
00:44:21 - Annie Dickerson
Okay. Oh, they're right in the thick of it and starting that young adulthood. So as you go through this journey for yourself, what's your perspective on their own journeys and what do you hope for them?
00:44:34 - Jen Briggs
I love this question so much because I've thought about it a lot and I think my mom and dad did A great job raising me. I'm not complaining about how I grew up, but I think one thing that I wish that would have been driven home with me was that I have everything I need to make the decisions in life that I need to make. So in that when I look at my own daughters, the biggest lesson that I want to drive home to them is that they're empowered to find their tools, their way of operating. They're uniquely designed. Their way of making decisions isn't going to be the way that I make decisions, because I'm a real sacral kind of gut decision maker. My oldest is not that she needs to ride the waves of her emotion and look at the data and then when she's in a neutral place, make the decision. So it's for me, understanding that inevitably, because when I look at all of life again, if you come back to nature, in the cycle of transformation, things must die before new things can be born. And in that, there is always pain. Like, there just isn't a way around it. So it's not about helping them avoid pain. It's helping them navigate through pain, because the way out is through. So how do they get through that? And how can they gain that relationship of trust with themselves so that they can know that they have the ability to navigate life's decisions? And when they do, here's another belief that I've come to, which is I really don't believe that there are failures in life. I think that the thing that we perceive as failures are there to give us feedback. It's just like, throw me the same pitch over and over and I'm going to miss it. And then I'm going to go, okay, what was I doing? How can I adjust my form? How can, you know? People that are athletes listening would know, like, here's where you make the adjustment in order to hit the ball as the way it's coming to you right now. So I didn't fail. There's famous quotes about Thomas Edison, like, he didn't fail. It just took him like 10,000 tries to get a light bulb to work. None of that was failure. That was all data. It was all information. So in any of those points of pain for our kids or for ourselves that look like a mistake, I'm both learning about how to hit the ball. I'm learning about how to navigate life. And I'm also learning about myself in that moment. So then in the moment I can go, well, looking back, why did I, quote, unquote, make that mistake? Oh, I was afraid that If I did it this other way, I wouldn't fit in. Well, why were you afraid that you wouldn't fit in? So I'm accustomed to kind of now I'm going to go a few layers deep and ask myself what was that really about? And I'm going to let that inform me so that again, I can come back to making decisions that are most in alignment with myself and that are not self abandoning.
00:47:24 - Annie Dickerson
Yeah, I think that's a beautiful thing, that not only are you helping to shepherd your kids through this and help them to navigate their own journeys, but also that you're such an inspiration to them. They've seen you go through this transformation.
00:47:42 - Jen Briggs
They've seen me cry more times than I can count, I'll tell you that. Yeah, there you go.
00:47:49 - Annie Dickerson
And you know, they've seen you through this and the transformation, who you were before and how you've stepped in to this fullest version of yourself and you're still on that journey of transformation. You're not done, you're still going through it, you're still discovering new things. So it's the same for them. They'll then have the courage to walk their own walk, whatever that looks like for them. Okay, final question before we move into the last part of our show. Let's say the listener is listening to this. They're thinking, this all sounds amazing. I would love to go on a journey of transformation and self discovery, but I'm kind of stuck where I am. I love what you're saying, but what's the first step? This seems so much. What do I even do as a first step? What would you say to them?
00:48:38 - Jen Briggs
You know, I think that's the classic. Stuck is like the biggest word that I would describe for myself. Where I was and then how did I get there. I like to start people on really an intuitive vision. How do we connect to a vision? Actually I pull from subconscious. So there are tools that we can use that help to get at our subconscious. You know, 90 some percent of our brain is subconscious and the rest is logical forward thinking. So we have very little access in our daytime thinking to the fullness of what actually is residing in our brains. So I like to take people through an exercise that is fully immersive to connect them with a vision of who they want to become. In my work and got very, very great at setting goals of what I wanted to achieve, there's nothing wrong with that, but there's what do I want to achieve? But then associated with that is who do I want to become or how do I want this life to feel? How do I want my days to feel? So I really like to start with, who do you want to be? How do you want to live? So we create a really vivid vision around that. And we look at where are you at right now? And what's the gap to getting there? How does this future version of you show up? And how does she or he make decisions? How does he or she walk into the room, and what's the delta between the two? And then we develop a really strategic plan to get from here to there. And I think it coincides with the what do you want to achieve? It's not to abandon goals or sort of smart goals or ways that we can attach metrics to it. I'll speak for myself. I think a lot of us have done things sort of inside out. It's what do I want to get? And then who do I need to become to get that thing? And that is where we abandon ourself. Because I used this example once in a training I was leading. It's kind of a silly example. I was single at the time. Not that I would necessarily want this, but I was like, well, let's just say I wanted to date an NFL player. And I'm going, well, what do I want to get? Well, I want to get an NFL player. Okay, so now I'm going to ask myself, well, who does that woman need to become to get the NFL player? And then I'm totally bending and contorting and trying to, you know, do the splits like a cheerleader or something. Oh. And then I show up there and I'm going, oh, well, I don't feel fulfilled in this relationship. Well, why? Because I'm not me. I'm trying to be who I think you want me to be. Turns out that NFL player might not want who I think he, you know, like, it's just a total mismatch. So we do that in life. We arrive at the thing, we hit the goal, we achieve the thing. And then often we're going, I got the thing. Why am I not happy? Well, because probably many of us haven't done the work to go well, who do I want to be and how do I want to feel, and how do I want my days to look? So it starts with creating that and then figuring out how to line that up with the business goals, with the leadership goals, with the metrics, and then peeling it back. Then we walk the path.
00:51:37 - Annie Dickerson
Wow. And what a fun example, but so powerful, right? Dating an NFL player. You're like, okay, step one, I would do this. It's true. And you may get that thing. And a lot of people do achieve that thing that they want, but then they turn around and they say, wait a second. This doesn't feel right. This isn't actually what I wanted. And this is a new practice for so many of us because we've been so ingrained to do it that way. Pick the goal, work backwards from there. But to think about who you want to become first and foremost and how you want to feel when you get there, and then working from there. Wow, wow, wow. I'm taking so many notes because I want to do that. That's the journey that I'm on as well. I love that so much. Thank you for sharing that.
00:52:25 - Jen Briggs
Of course. Yeah.
00:52:27 - Annie Dickerson
With that, we're going to move into the final part of our show, the Life and Money show spotlight round. Jen, we're going to ask you three questions. We ask all our guests. Are you ready?
00:52:35 - Jen Briggs
I'm ready.
00:52:36 - Annie Dickerson
All right. The first question is about your life and money. Share with us one thing that you're doing to live a meaningful and intentional life by design. Oh, gosh.
00:52:48 - Jen Briggs
Some of this is going to be repetitive. I'll just say that I think the most meaningful thing that I'm doing is making decisions throughout my day that are in alignment with who I am. That is, these little moments that are adding up to create that life. That may seem kind of simplistic, but that's how I have the life by design, life and fulfillment. Now I'm in completely different career. I'm living in a different place. I'm dating a new man. It's all happening because I'm making these little decisions that are in alignment throughout the day.
00:53:20 - Annie Dickerson
It's so simple, yet it takes a lot to be able to do that. You may look the same on the outside, but as a result of all those little decisions, everything on the inside is completely different. I think that's a great way to start, too. Is just those little things. What do I want in this moment? And continuing to come back to yourself again and again. It's a beautiful thing. Beautiful practice. Yeah. All right, second question is about others life and money. So share with us a life or money hack. And by hack, we loosely mean a tool, a tip, a resource, anything that has helped you with your life or your money along the way that you think might help the listener as well.
00:54:02 - Jen Briggs
I'm a broken record. This is along with making decisions that are in alignment. But I think the most powerful thing is developing a really close relationship with your intuition. Because our innate ability to know the direction, and I'm talking about business decisions, probably your decision to reach out to me was fueled by intuition is my guess. And who knows what this will lead to? There's just on so many facets and this takes courage because sometimes there are sort of odd things when you're like, man, my logic is telling me to do this thing and I'm just going to like throw this caveat out there. This is coming from a person who has been in a high level world where everything is logical, but really learning how to integrate intuition throughout the day, whether it's, how am I perceiving my team? Right now I have a team in a room and I'm looking at them and going, something doesn't feel right here. So how do I in that moment tune into who needs what to lead them most effectively? Or who did I decide to reach out to, to have as a guest on my podcast? And that leads to an opportunity in the future. There's this intelligent design. I think that as animals, as mammals, you look at animals and how they know when weather is coming and all of the things. So developing a clear relationship with your intuition, knowing how your intuition speaks to you, whether that's cues in your body or signs or again, this might feel woo to some people, but there's science even behind this, what our subconscious brain will connect to. And so tapping into our intuition and knowing how that intuition speaks to you as an individual.
00:55:41 - Annie Dickerson
Ooh, that's such a good one. And this manifests for me a lot in events where I put my loose intention out there. And sometimes it's tens of thousands of people at events. I follow where the thread takes me. I get into the right conversations and I find exactly the right person that I was meant to cross paths with. I think when you give it a chance and you follow that thread, it can take you to so many magical places in life. Agreed.
00:56:08 - Jen Briggs
Yeah.
00:56:09 - Annie Dickerson
Third and final question is around life and money and the world. Share with us one thing that you're doing to help make the world a better place, whatever that means for you.
00:56:19 - Jen Briggs
I'll share two things. Is that okay? Yeah. Okay. It may seem simple, but I really have come back over and over to this. It's kind of maybe puts a bow on the conversation here around this idea of starting with self, that because of how we're intricately connected to one another and this intricate design, when each of us as individuals really are connecting to the truth of who we are and showing up that Way we need every part to the puzzle. So my goal in my work is not to help to get people to be more like me. It's to help to get people to be more like them, to find the truth of who they are. And the way that I can best do that is to start with myself. So how can I make the world a better place? Well, if I start with being really authentic to who I am and show up in the community that way, show up in my work that way, that inevitably has a ripple effect that I. Sometimes I will see, many times I will see, and many times I won't. And the obvious ripple effect for me is that that is my work, is to help people do the same. And so then how are they showing up that way? I think it's really invaluable that we start with self. And I think, just as a bit of an aside, I don't know if this is a gender thing, if this is a mom thing, if this is a human thing, But I think there's a narrative around that being sort of selfish to, like, put ourselves first and figure out who we are and show up in ways that light us up. And it may go without saying, but I just believe the opposite of that. I think, because we're designed in a way to live life in a way that is both challenging and causes us to evolve and grow. And also brings a lot of joy. And when we snap into alignment, we positively impact the whole ecosystem. So that'd be my first thing, starting with self. My second thing is that I've really been tuning in lately to just. God, I really do sound kind of hippie as I'm hearing myself say these things out loud.
00:58:21 - Annie Dickerson
Amazing.
00:58:22 - Jen Briggs
But my relationship to nature, because I believe we are a reflection and a part of the natural world, I'm really tuning into what a relationship looks like. So taking care of instead of just walking by garbage. How can I care for the earth by just picking up a piece of garbage that I see? You know, my sister has gotten really into just tuning into what the land around her house needs. And all of a sudden, she has vegetation showing up. That is what her body needs. And there's just this wild relationship there. And so I've just been more aware. I wouldn't say that I'm working really hard. And for good, bad, or otherwise. I'm not out there as an environmental advocate, But I'm aware of the fact that we are nature. And that if nature isn't healthy, we're not as healthy as we can be. So what's this symbiotic relationship between me and nature is something I'm working on.
00:59:19 - Annie Dickerson
Oh, so beautiful. Something I'm working on too. And I love that you brought up both of those things and the hippie thing. I mean, they had something going for that. They affected a lot of change and they seem like really happy people. So I'm not sure that's the worst thing. I'm happy to lean into the hippie side of me too. But Jen, I know we've covered a lot here, but I know it's just the tip of the iceberg for all that you do. So I know that some of our listeners are probably going to want to follow up with you and perhaps take a look at more of your work and. Or work with you. So share with the listener. If they did want to follow up, what's the best place that they can go?
00:59:59 - Jen Briggs
I'll send you some links that you can put in the show notes if you'd like to do that. So I've got a contact form that they can fill out if they'd like to get a hold of me. My Instagram is the place, social media wise, that I spend the most time on. I do have a website. It's old, it's my blog and I'm in the midst of reconstructing that. So I would say Instagram is probably the best place. But feel free if you want to hear a little bit more of my personal story. The JenniferBriggs.com is my website and you can get a hold of me through there too. So.
01:00:28 - Annie Dickerson
And your podcast.
01:00:30 - Jen Briggs
Yes, my podcast. How could I forget? My podcast is the whole shebang. I am on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, everywhere that you can listen. And we're really focused on topics around personal transformation and the framework of the feminine and masculine and conscious capitalism and leadership and things like that. And would love to get a follow for anybody who's interested in learning more and just connecting in that community there.
01:00:55 - Annie Dickerson
Yeah, amazing. Well, I have definitely become one of your latest podcast fans. I'm going to binge listen to the whole thing. I was scrolling through all of the topics. I'm like, yes, got to add this one. Yep, want to listen to this one too. So I have a feeling you're going to be in my ears a lot. Jen Briggs hosted the podcast, the Whole Shebang. Intuitive transformation architect, coach, mama leader, and so much more. Jen, thank you so much for being here with us and our listeners today and sharing your infinite wisdom with us.
01:01:29 - Jen Briggs
Annie, thank you for having me. This was a genuine pleasure. I appreciate it.
01:01:35 - Annie Dickerson
All right. With that, that's our show for today. Today, thank you for listening to the Life and Money Show. The show all about helping you to create a meaningful and intentional life by design. And just like Jen talked about on today's show, a big part of that is coming into alignment and integrating all the parts of yourself, the masculine energies, the feminine energies, and coming into full view and alignment with your authenticity, whatever that means for you. And it doesn't have to be this big sweeping things. It can be just these little moments each day, these little decisions where you're coming back in touch with yourself. As Jen mentioned, we are going to include links for you to follow up with her in the show notes. So you can find that@lifeandmoneyshow.com and of course, for more information about how to invest with us here at Goodegg, create passive income and build wealth for your family, go to goodeg investments.com and finally, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. These kinds of conversations are super special and but they're things that we don't often talk about and it sometimes is hard to talk about. So if you're at that point where you got a lot of value out of this conversation and you know somebody out there who could benefit from some of these same concepts and this conversation, please share it with them. We would absolutely love that as we continue to collectively ripple out our impact together. Till next time, remember that your financial journey is a lifelong adventure and we're here with you every step of the way. Not just for the money side of you, not just for the life part of you, but all of you. You. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time.